Showing posts with label commerce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commerce. Show all posts

Tax-Free Internet Shopping Jeopardized By Politicians

by Stephen Ohlemacher. Tax-free shopping on the Internet could be in jeopardy under a bill making its way through the Senate. The bill would empower states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives. Under current law, states   ... MORE 

Steve Chapman: What's Worse Than Horse Slaughter?

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.   When it comes to government action, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Hold down gasoline prices to help motorists, and you create shortages. Punish landlords to protect tenants, and apartments get harder to find. Invade Iraq to spread freedom, and you get civil war.        ... MORE

Andrew Moylan: Don't Tax The Internet

Beware of the "Marketplace Fairness Act."  Senate Republicans will face a fork in the road this week when Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., forces a vote on a measure paving the way for expanded state sales tax collection for online purchases. The route Durbin would have them take would eventually lead to passage of the so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act,” a bill ... MORE

Anti-Drone Devices To Be Going On Sale

Some power for the people.  Domestic drones will soon be soaring through the sky left and right, but a company in Oregon with ties to the US military is marketing a service that they say will make sure private property is safe from surveillance. The team at one-month-old Domestic Drone Countermeasures doesn’t go into many specifics, but says ... MORE

Mark J. Fitzgibbons: A Property Rights Revolution For 2013

Bureaucratic bullying on steroids.  A previously apolitical organic farmer in Virginia has set off a property rights revolution that would make Founders Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and author of Virginia's Declaration of Rights George Mason proud. Martha Boneta had a business license for her tiny farm store in scenic Paris, Virginia,  ... MORE

Jeff Stier: Obesity Police Launch A Needless War

The relentless effort of regulators to reduce options. If there’s agreement about anything in our hotly-politicized environment today it is that while we work to find sensible and principled solutions to real-world problems, we also need to do a better job coming to consensuses. But when it comes to addressing obesity, the most prominent public   ... MORE

Jessica Melugin: Internet Sales Taxes Attack States' Rights

Government intervention kills competition.        Proponents of Internet sales taxes are asking the lame-duck Congress to bless their state tax cartel as part of a larger tax reform package by passing the Marketplace Equity Act (H.R. 3179) and its companion in the Senate, the Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 1832). These aren’t your average tax increases,    ... MORE

Union Fail: Walmart Reports Record Sales

The people vote with their pocketbooks. Despite union efforts to target retailers like Walmart, businesses are reporting record Black Friday traffic – the biggest sign yet that the unions are out of touch with the American people. Starting at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Walmart put its products on Black Friday sale, sparking a run to the stores and     ... MORE

What Legal Pot In Washington State Will Look Like

by Jacob Sullum.  Washington's marijuana legalization initiative, which takes effect on December 6, is broadly similar to Colorado's: Both initiatives eliminate penalties for possession of up to an ounce by adults 21 or older, and both call for state-licensed pot shops, in Washington's case to be regulated by the state liquor control board, which is   ... MORE

VIDEO: October 2012 Nanny Of The Month

Matthew Yglesias: Why Price Gouging Is Necessary

Getting supply to where it is needed most.     Some more words on price gouging, as New York and New Jersey are increasingly afflicted by gasoline shortages. There are three issues we need to look at here. One is allocation, one is short-term supply, and one is long-term supply. A lot of people seem to want to look at this purely as an allocative      ... MORE

Supreme Court To Determine Legality Of Reselling

Testing the boundaries of copyright laws.    All eyes will be on Justice Elena Kagan on Monday, when the Supreme Court considers a copyright case that some fear could prevent people from reselling certain products they own such as the iPhone, as she may have the deciding vote. In a case that tests the boundaries of copyright law,    ... MORE

Jennifer Waters: Right To Sell Your Own Stuff Is In Peril

It could even become illegal to resell almost anything. Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4. At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to ... MORE

Michelle Jamrisko: Business Activity In US Is Shrinking

Only government remains a growth industry.  Business activity in the U.S. unexpectedly contracted in September for the first time in three years, adding to signs manufacturing will contribute less to the economic recovery. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said today its business barometer fell 49.7 this month from 53 in August.      ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: The Marijuana Rebellion

Prohibition under attack. By the time the 21st Amendment ended national alcohol prohibition in December 1933, more than a dozen states had already opted out. Maryland never passed its own version of the Volstead Act, while New York repealed its alcohol prohibition law in 1923. Eleven other states eliminated their statutes by     ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Bloomberg's Big Beverage Ban

Paternalistic precedent won't make anyone thinner.    Everyone expected that New York City’s Board of Health, all 11 members of which were appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, would rubber-stamp his proposed 16-ounce cap on servings of sugar-sweetened soft drinks. But at a meeting in June, several board members zeroed in on the most     ... MORE

Peter Wilson: The Progressive War On Parking

Putting the squeeze on private transportation.      Mark your calendars: September 21 is international PARK(ing) Day, described as "annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into 'PARK(ing)' spaces."  Get it?  The place you "park" your car becomes a "park."  It's a      ... MORE